Srinagar, May 26: “Jammu Kashmir has been turned into a police state where every voice of dissent is curbed and crushed by military and police might. The plight of Kashmiri inmates is getting worst day by day which is highly condemnable,” said JKLF chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik while addressing a peaceful protest sit-in of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) at Press enclave here on Saturday.

The protest, according to a statement issued here, was held to raise voice at the plight of Kashmiri inmates languishing in jails of Jammu Kashmir and India.

The statement said activists and leaders of JRL gathered near JKLF office Abi Guzar from where they marched towards press enclave and held a peaceful sit-in there. Later JKLF chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik also joined the sit-in and addressed the protesters.

Malik said that thousands of Kashmiris are languishing in Indian jails and from 14-year-old adolescents to eighty-year-old men to ailing women, all are facing Indian wrath in jails, and on daily basis many more are being arrested and detained.

“India used its forces and agencies like NIA and ED to halt Kashmiri march to freedom but these oppressive measures have failed. Today we have many including Syed Shabir Ahmad Shah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saif-u-ullah, Raja Meraj-u-Din Kalwal, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Zahoor Ahmad Watali, and Shahid Yousuf Shah languishing in Tihar jail who were actually abducted by NIA and ED and shifted to Tihar Jail under frivolous and concocted charges. Every evil tactic is being employed by India to prolong their incarceration and miseries,” Malik said.

“Similarly dozens of inmates including Dr Qasim Faktoo, Dr Shafi Shariati, Ghulam Qadir Butt, Nazir Ahmad Sheikh, Showkat Ahmad Khan, Abdul Gani Goni, Lateef Ahmad Waja, Javed Ahmad Khan, Mehmood Topi Wala, Iftikhar Mirza, Feroz Ahmad, Parvaiz Ahmad and many more are in jails serving life sentence. Many of these lifers have been shifted to hundreds of kilometers away from their home in Jammu and Indian jails to add up to their hardships,” he said.

“There are many more who are arrested on concocted charges like 18 innocent boys from Sher-e-Khaas who have been arrested in DSP murder case and many who are facing wrath of police in various police stations. Not only this; the ailing lady Syeda Asiya Andrabi along with Fahmeeda Sofi and Naheed Nasreen are being penalized by police from many days,” he said.

Malik said that India being a signatory to the Geneva Convention on political prisoners has an obligation to respect the rights of prisoners but as with other human rights, India has trampled this right too and is crushing these inmates with impunity.

He said that the holy month of Ramadan has also not brought any respite to these Kashmiri inmates but instead their miseries have been added up. “Kashmiris want these innocent political victims to be released from jails soon so that they are also able to celebrate Eid with their families,” he said. (GNS)